This application claims the benefit of United States provisional application Nos. 60/163,363, filed Nov. 3, 1999, 60/186,963, filed Mar. 6, 2000, and 60/203,756, filed May 12, 2000, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
The present application concerns winding wire coils for a ferromagnetic core of a stator or of an armature for a dynamo-electric machine such as an electric motor, a generator, an alternator, or the like.
Wire winding machines are used to wind wire onto the ferromagnetic cores of dynamo-electric machine parts such as armatures and stators. The cores have slots into which wire must be wound to form wire coils. In operation of these parts, current is passed through the coils.
To form the coils, wire is dispensed from a rotating arm called a flyer. The flyer rotates about the core repeatedly, depositing wire turns to form complete coils.
In electro-dynamic machine components such as armature cores and stator cores, the slots into which the wire is wound should be relatively small for optimal motor performance. However, slots that are too small may unduely limit the number of wire turns that may be placed onto the core.
Moreover, it would be desirable to be able to control the wire that is wound onto such dynamo-electric machine components by limiting the length of the free wire between the flyer and the part being wound as much as possible.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide improved arrangements for winding wire onto dynamo-electric machine components and for forming such components.
This and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the present invention by providing wire winding arrangements in which wire may be wound onto the pole pieces of armatures or stators or other dynamo-electric machine components. Wire may be wound onto individual pole pieces that are assembled into a complete dynamo-electric machine component after winding. For example, a machine may be provided that grips individual separate portions of a dynamo-electric machine component during winding. When each such portion has been wound, the portions may be turned to face each other and may be gathered together to form a final component. More wire may be wound onto such dynamo-electric machine component portions than could generally be wound onto prefabricated dynamo-electric machine components. If desired, an insulating holster may be used to facilitate the assembly of the portions being wound.
A wire winding arrangement may be provided in which wire is dispensed from a wire winding nozzle or other wire dispensing structure that follows a winding trajectory that parallels the surface of the piece being wound. The piece being wound may have, for example, a non-circular or nearly elliptical cross-section. The wire winding nozzle may be moved along a path that closely follows the surface of such a piece during winding, thereby minimizing the distance between the nozzle exit and the piece and increasing the control of the winding apparatus over the wire winding process.
Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.